Deathless Aspiration: The Resurgent Heroines of Stael and Rossetti
My paper suggests the phoenix as a lens for examination of female protagonists in the work of women writers in the Romantic and Victorian periods. Although time will limit my focus to the title characters from Corinne, or Italy and the poem “The Convent Threshold,” continued exploration of this motif might categorize examples across a spectrum based on inheritance revoked and claimed though self-destruction and resurgence.
Each of these texts focus on characters that are traditionally interpreted as socially and sexually repressed, but my claim is that the women spotlighted in these works are boldly assertive in ways that we continue to find beyond comprehension today.
Corinne chooses to sacrifice her physical welfare and her unparalleled artistic creativity, turning her very life into a heartbreaking piece of art exposing the indulgent, self-absorbed patriarchal society. Her prison is entered intentionally and self-imposed, a response to rather than effect of the negligence and betrayal of a suitor. She engages in self-destruction, confident that the legacy of her voice will remain heard in memory and, eventually, in the inspiration she extends through her surrogate daughter.
Similarly, the young woman taking the cloth in “The Convent Threshold” is not crushed by the thumb of religious dominance, as commonly interpreted. Instead, she asserts her right to discard the affections of a morally inferior man to instead pledge allegiance to an eternally faithful God. She immolates a self that is focused on fleshy satisfactions to engineer recreation as a new creation of unalloyed spiritual devotion.
Deathless Aspiration: The Resurgent Heroines of Stael and Rossetti
My paper suggests the phoenix as a lens for examination of female protagonists in the work of women writers in the Romantic and Victorian periods. Although time will limit my focus to the title characters from Corinne, or Italy and the poem “The Convent Threshold,” continued exploration of this motif might categorize examples across a spectrum based on inheritance revoked and claimed though self-destruction and resurgence.
Each of these texts focus on characters that are traditionally interpreted as socially and sexually repressed, but my claim is that the women spotlighted in these works are boldly assertive in ways that we continue to find beyond comprehension today.
Corinne chooses to sacrifice her physical welfare and her unparalleled artistic creativity, turning her very life into a heartbreaking piece of art exposing the indulgent, self-absorbed patriarchal society. Her prison is entered intentionally and self-imposed, a response to rather than effect of the negligence and betrayal of a suitor. She engages in self-destruction, confident that the legacy of her voice will remain heard in memory and, eventually, in the inspiration she extends through her surrogate daughter.
Similarly, the young woman taking the cloth in “The Convent Threshold” is not crushed by the thumb of religious dominance, as commonly interpreted. Instead, she asserts her right to discard the affections of a morally inferior man to instead pledge allegiance to an eternally faithful God. She immolates a self that is focused on fleshy satisfactions to engineer recreation as a new creation of unalloyed spiritual devotion.